Battlefield 4 Preview

There was only one map to play during the beta, “Siege of Shanghai”, but there were threedifferent game modes to choose from, including the all new “Obliteration” mode.

The first thing you notice when launching into Battlefield 4 is exactly how pretty the new Frostbite 3 engine is. Battlefield 4 is easily one of the best looking FPS games to date, but there is a price to pay for such epic graphics, and some PC’s struggle to keep up with the intense load.

This can make for some extremely long load times between maps, but I remember this being a problem in the Battlefield 3 beta as well and was fixed by release, so hopefully that comes to pass again.

The loadout system for the classes is straight forward and intuitive, so even the newest of player will easily be able to navigate their way around the system. The ability to change your loadout on Battlelog is also a great feature, and gives you the ability to change your loadouts no matter where you are.

The new Battlelog is not even fully functional, and yet even with half of its capabilities not available during beta, it still looks to be an amazing tool for Battlefield players, and will even be available on Smart phones as an App once the game is released.

The geo – leaderboard allows you to see how many people in your area play Battlefield and who you need to beat, which creates competitive environments purely from location. You can also compare yourself to your friends, a statistic I’ve yet to hear the end of, thanks to my terrible aim.

As for the gameplay itself, Battlefield 4 plays much like Battlefield 3, so is easy to get the hang of if you have participated in Battlefield games of the past. There are some added features, such as the auto – lean around a corner, which makes the gameplay a bit smoother and more intuitive, and has saved my life on more than one occasion.

Their “levolution” map design makes each game feel different no matter what happens, as you can evolve (or destroy) the map to your own advantage in an almost infinite amount of ways. Almost everything is destructible in some way, and some events have major consequences on the look of the map.

It is quite easy to say that Battlefield 4 looks to be the most exciting multiplayer FPS release for 2013, and is a must-buy for any fan of the franchise.

Battlefield 4 is due for release on 29 October on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with next – gen console releases expected sometime in late November.